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[Graknorke]

Ustres was a dick anyway. No use crying over spilled tosspot.

How are we at climbing and sneaking? Those skills could always do with a bit of training. Maybe have a go at some big game hunting too if there's anything of that sort about.

[Putnam]

(shit forgot to mention, this is on hiatus until I install my new hard drive--current one is near death, so I fear I'll lose my data if I continue for much longer)

[Putnam]

Ending the hiatus. I got bored of not doing this. So let's shake it up.

You are now Harlin.

Anarli and Glafli are communicating pretty heavily right now. They're trying to figure out the limit of their powers. Glafli's gotten the hang of getting creative with powers, so she's the one taking charge here. You're basically just along for the ride. The mind/heart dichotomy is somewhat of a confusing one; you're pretty sure that the "heart" that Glafli deals with is just a subset of the "mind" that Anarli deals with, but the two seem to be mutually exclusive. Anarli can make you understand exactly what she wants you to while Glafli can make you feel exactly what she wants you to; this suggests that there's real disconnect between thinking and feeling, which doesn't surprise you but never really had confirmation.

DIALOGLOG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

HARLIN: How are you two holding up?
GLAFLI: Anarli's having a hell of a time. She's just gotten her powers, so trying to prod her limits ends up falling short really quickly. I'm feeling awfully fine about it, though.
ANARLI: Sorry. Not really.
GLAFLI: Yeah, that. We figured out that she can affect stress while I can effect emotions, and she can directly affect certain cognitive skills to a limited amount, so she gave herself some extra boost in language capabilities. It's really tired her out.
ANARLI: Not fun. Speaking, yes, tired, no.
GLAFLI: For some reason my powers are really strong compared to hers. I would guess that this is because you can actually exercise powers in some manner, using them and making them stronger. I've been using my powers for years now, which is probably why.
HARLIN: If we can strengthen our powers simply by using them, I could probably figure out a way to get more revivals in general. My revival on you was such a drain that I still haven't gotten to that level since.
GLAFLI: I already put away Herido's corpse, though.
HARLIN: What? Why?! Why would you do that when you know that...
GLAFLI: I suppressed my emotions at the time so that I may operate more efficiently in combat. Doing this was risky, apparently, since I ended up forgetting about that. I already decided to let myself cry about it after we got back and killed the upstart.
HARLIN: ...Anarli, can you leave us in private?
ANARLI: Heh, difficult as a mind-reader. Okay.
HARLIN: Yeah, fine. Glafli, you're scary. Really, really scary.
GLAFLI: I'm perfectly aware of that. The emotion suppression combined with the drive to revolution I felt led me to do some pretty awful things to people who probably didn't deserve it.
HARLIN: Where did that drive for revolution come from? I mean, I felt excited, somewhat, as we were taking over, but it wasn't enough to decapitate people and throw the body of a friend off a tower.
GLAFLI: *wince*
GLAFLI: My emotions were suppressed. It was an awful idea. The drive to revolution I don't know about. Perhaps it's my lowblood nature. Perhaps it's Hestur's fault. Perhaps it's a combination of the two, but it's over. I'll defend my holding, but I probably won't undergo bloody revolution against a possibly just regime again.
HARLIN: I'll hold you to that. Anarli, come back in.
ANARLI: Fine. Glafli, demonstrate?
GLAFLI: Oh, yeah. Anarli and I discovered something new about my powers while we were testing our limits. I was the scapegoat for this, since my state in this area is something that I've never really appreciated. It's perfectly reversible. So let's go. Harlin, do you think that you could ever be my or Anarli's lover?
HARLIN: Well, technically, yeah, anything's possible--
GLAFLI: Zap.
HARLIN: ...You just removed my ability to be attracted to females. That's... completely fascinating. Put it back, pleae.
GLAFLI: Done. It's always been my best-kept secret, even compared to the heart powers--I have never felt romantic feelings for another troll.
HARLIN: How weren't you shunned from society? And wait, weren't you in a relationship with... well, quite a few trolls?
GLAFLI: Yeah, I had friends play along whenever possible. It was an awful situation, though. Now that I'm adventuring, it's not nearly as big a deal, but I decided to correct that part of myself.
HARLIN: You know, Glafli, I find all this somewhat disturbing. All this self-modification, even in a controlled manner, seems to be... dangerous.
GLAFLI: Anarli and I only test our modifications on things we don't have in the first place. I wouldn't miss them.
HARLIN: It still seems odd.
GLAFLI: We won't ever modify you, then. Besides that, the modifications are oddly concrete despite representing concepts most think of as abstract or mystical. "Sexually attracted to males", "romantically attracted to females" and the like are simply features of an individual, not at all a complex thing, determined from birth. But I'm the only person I'm really comfortable on permanently modifying in that way. I didn't want to be involved in romance, but I certainly do want to want to be involved in romance. It's fine. Similarly, Anarli wanted to be able to communicate more clearly, and we found a way that makes it possible.
ANARLI: I'm happy. It's good. I'm tired. Getting there.
HARLIN: ...There's a line you might cross at some point, you realize, that could be very bad.
GLAFLI: Well, here's the thing. Causing great mental anguish is something that both Anarli and I can do, though through different methods. We understand this entirely. Remember, we are adventurers. We have enemies.
HARLIN: Are you saying that you're willing to torture your enemies?
GLAFLI: Yes, of course. That's a perfectly normal thing to want.
HARLIN: Oh, right. I know you've been taught that your whole life, but it's... not right. There's not much to be gained from torturing your enemies. The pleasure you get isn't even close to the pain they feel. You know this for a fact, though you may never have noticed it.
GLAFLI: ...I promised not to repress my emotions anymore, so I'm just going to do as you would and change my fundamental world view.

Glafli begins crying, and soon stops.

DIALOGLOG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

GLAFLI: And there we go.
HARLIN: What was that about?
ANARLI: Perfect empathy.
GLAFLI: My powers allow me to perfectly emulate the world view and ideals of another person. The practice I've gotten over the years combined with Anarli's powers and your smarts give me full understanding of what makes an individual what they are. And yes, to a human I'm unspeakably evil. The crying you saw was me, reacting to my actions from a human's perspective.
HARLIN: Hmm. Does that mean that we three together could come up with an idea of what any individual could do in any given situation?
ANARLI: No.
GLAFLI: Decision-making is foreign to Anarli and me both. I can read everything about an individual's "heart", but decision-making is not part of that.
HARLIN: Oh.
GLAFLI: You think I'm acting oddly.
HARLIN: Yes. I'm worried that your self-editing might be... permanent.
GLAFLI: Any self-editing I do will end up permanently changing me in some way, yes. I figure losing myself somewhat is worth the ability to perfectly understand anything with a soul.
HARLIN: ...
GLAFLI: We're leaving to kill Oshot Selenokol.
HARLIN: What?! No.
GLAFLI: You can stay behind. I'm going to kill Oshot.
HARLIN: I did not mean for you to want that. That's not a good idea, that is not something you should do, or even can.
GLAFLI: It is something I should do. Whether I can do it is not up for debate. I will do it.
HARLIN: He's more skilled than you, he's faster, he's...
GLAFLI: I don't care. I'm the only person who's able to kill him.
HARLIN: What??

From your point of view, Glafli wants to commit doggy-assisted suicide. What will you do about it, Harlin?

JOURNAL CONTENTS:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Glafli wants to go kill the Sovereign Slayer. You don't think she's up for it. She's insistent.

APPEARANCE:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Short, fat; long hair in a ponytail; narrow ears; short, upturned nose with convex bone bridge; thin lips; long eyebrows; ~half a meter long horns at a somewhat acute angle to the ground. Lime blood.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nothing wrong with being asexual! Trollish society is actually pretty awful about that particular sexual minority. Using a magic cure is not an example of what I think should be done. Characters in the story do not necesarilly espouse my own views. Trollish society is also really freaking awful about torture and stuff, but Harlin smart enough to be a one-woman enlightenment, so she can take cues from the Prospitians.

[Graknorke]

What the fuck Glafli. That is not the kind of thing a reasonable person says.

Would it maybe be possible for Harlin and Anarli between them to wrestle Glafli down?

[Putnam]

What the fuck Glafli. That is not the kind of thing a reasonable person says.

Would it maybe be possible for Harlin and Anarli between them to wrestle Glafli down?

You consider wrestling her for a second and realize that it's not possible. She's ludicrously strong.

Force is not the way to go with someone like this.

(note: yeah, going to fight the slayer unless someone comes up with something real great, heh. And trust me, they're just two paths for the story to continue, neither will end it sooner than the other.)

[Graknorke]

Hmm, if Anarli weren't already worn out I'd suggest trying to mess with Glafli's willpower. As it is I've got nothing.

[Sergarr]

Do we even know where it lives, exactly?

Maybe suggest bringing more meatshields companions?

[Putnam]

Glafli's gesturing to go. You're not going to enjoy this. She's going to die, and maybe you will too.

And Anarli definitely does. Dammit. You hadn't even made it there yet. She went crazy and started attacking you.¹ Glafli quickly quashed that.

Glafli looks at you. Oh, right.

GLAFLI: Feeling a bit more confident now?
HARLIN: Oh, now that our most skilled and well-equipped party member is dead at your hands? Very nice.
GLAFLI: That was a rhetorical question. You saw how well I handled that fight.
HARLIN: She wasn't nearly as strong as Oshot.
GLAFLI: But I killed her like it was nothing.
HARLIN: ...

You have no idea what's gotten into her.

You made it. The fight was so quick that you couldn't see it. The Slayer still stands and Glafli is dead.

Oh no.

Glafli gets up, wearing a new set of heart-themed armor, as what you recognize to be the newly-revived Knight of Heart.

Glafli gestures.

Oshot dies. You have no idea how.

You are now Glafli.

Holy shit that was stupid. You know it was stupid. Everything you've done was stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. You understand heart so well now, enough to know that your experiments and modifications were reckless and probably resulted in Anarli's death. Your self-modifications resulted in stupid decision-making that Anarli didn't even consider fixing because you had already messed her up earlier.

GLAFLI: Harlin, I am so, so sorry. For all of this.
HARLIN: I nearly died and you did. It was only by this weird god-tier shit that you managed to revive. And now you seem to be back to normal. I'm not sure if apologies are what I want.
GLAFLI: Oh. Okay then. Well, let's talk about this god-tier thing. I know so much now.
HARLIN: What, supernaturally? Lame.
GLAFLI: I'll ignore that for now. Anyway, I understand the heart greater than anyone else. I can manipulate it as I please. My title suggests that I'll mainly use it as a weapon, which, to be fair, I have so far.
GLAFLI: Considering all that, what will we do? I think that this has turned out well, considering that I did kill the single most dangerous being that we know of.
HARLIN: Oh, yeah, I meant to ask about that. How?
GLAFLI: I tore the soul out of his body.
HARLIN: You can do that?! I thought your powers were just related to the "heart".
GLAFLI: Yeah, a perk of the upgrade, I guess, or perhaps I just never knew how. Either way, that's a thing. Probably can't do it too often, but I figure there was nobody better to use it on.
HARLIN: Yeah, I guess so.
GLAFLI: ...So what do we do now? I've basically destroyed the single most dangerous thing... ever. I've still dedicated myself to ridding the world of the most dangerous things around.
HARLIN: If you insist. Have you heard of vaults?
GLAFLI: No.
HARLIN: I learned of them when we were studying our powers. They're areas where demons enter the overworld.
HARLIN: There are 5: Baithelpful, Helmedsmears, Liegloves, Peacefulescort and Demonlaws. Baithelpful is very near here, just a bit to the northwest. Helmedsmears is right next to home. The rest are far to the south.
GLAFLI: Hmm. Maybe.

You're a god now. What will you do?

INVENTORY:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

God-tier uniform
Opossum leather waterskin (full)
Llama wool backpack
  Armor grist [1]
  Weapon Grist [1]
  Stray Asparagus
  Honey Badger meat [5]
  Hemp plant fiber bag
    Asparagus [23]
Unbreakable Katana

PARTY:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  Glafli Unnask, muddled.
  Excitement seekers:
   Harlin Sjalda, Polite supergenius.

JOURNAL CONTENTS:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Sovereign Slayer is in the Shaft of Mining, far to the west. Dead.
There's a bronze colossus to the east. Dead. Destroyed? Deactivated?
There's a hill titan in The Natural Glade far to the northwest. It's killed almost as many as the colossus.
Also to the northwest is a vault.
You are the Knight of Heart and your companion has Life. Nobody else seems to have these. Harlin thinks that Hestur blesses any of your traveling companions with these powers and that you are, in fact, destined for random crap.
We need to be WAY careful about companions.

APPEARANCE:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Very sparse, dry black hair in double braids; narrow ears with large lobes; short, upturned nose with convex bone bridge; broad head; thin lips; short, thin horns, at a very acute angle to the ground. God tier. Brown blood.

¹ friggin game does things I don't get sometimes
²I feel like I'm railroading the hell out of this now... but that's mostly the game's fault, I for the most part follow its lead. Any guidance I give or ideas I present may be summarily ignored, as always, and now that Glafli's in control whatever can happen. Also, it doesn't get much attention, so depending on how much I get I may just wrap this up at some point ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ gotta focus your attention sometimes, you know

[Graknorke]

More companion backstabbing huh. it just keeps hapening

Is Glafli still fucked in the head, or..?

[vjmdhzgr]

Glafli gets up, wearing a new set of heart-themed armor, as what you recognize to be the newly-revived Knight of Time.

Anyway, I say we tear the souls out of some bandits then go fight some angels. If possible make sure the vault belongs to a still living demon first.

[Graknorke]

Glafli gets up, wearing a new set of heart-themed armor, as what you recognize to be the newly-revived Knight of Time.

Anyway, I say we tear the souls out of some bandits then go fight some angels. If possible make sure the vault belongs to a still living demon first.

The soul thing looks to be on the level of life's revivey thing. Can't be done very frequently, and is a bit of a waste to use on bandits.

[Putnam]

More companion backstabbing huh. it just keeps hapening

Is Glafli still fucked in the head, or..?

When she got the tiger, she got her old personality back, plus a crapload of knowledge related to Heart. She's fine.

Glafli gets up, wearing a new set of heart-themed armor, as what you recognize to be the newly-revived Knight of Heart.

Anyway, I say we tear the souls out of some bandits then go fight some angels. If possible make sure the vault belongs to a still living demon first.

GLAFLI: A vault it is then.

With that statement, you feel vaguely free.

You are now... well, nobody in the narrative.

The remainder of the narrative is in third person.

Glafli and Harlin enter Baithelpful. As they do, a strange creature eyes them. A feathered monitor in humanoid form. Glafli is slammed by a wave of bitterness from it.

"It's jealous. Extremely jealous. What does that mean?" said Glafli.

"Hmm. It's very strange. I feel like it's familiar."

"Give me a second. Hmm. It appreciates self control and crafstmanship. It dreams of crafting a masterwork. It identifies with a civilization that I've seen no others identify with."

"Not useful. Perhaps we'll figure it out sooner or later."

They walk forward and presently come across a smaller creature. A small one-eyed humanoid with a pair of spindly antennae and red, wrinkled skin, holding a pock-marked spear.

"More jealousy. Do you know of anything associated with jealousy? Perhaps these are..."

"Lyjaup the Vice of Sin. These are angels. This may be bad."

Glafli isn't worried about this at all. A God of jealousy has nothing on a God of souls.

The spearwoman attacks Glafli, but without even thinking she parries the blow. She quickly begins the counterattack. The spearwoman is preoccupied with Harlin while Glafli attacks from above, hoping to kill her before she manages to hurt Harlin. Glafli slashes the spearwoman and she's knocked back. Immediately after hitting the wall, she stabs Harlin.

Directly in the pump biscuit.

"Harlin! Focus on healing yourself! I'll handle the angel!"

"My healing is spent from the violent takeover earlier! I can't..."

"Fuck!"

Glafli continues attacking until she gets an opportunity, at which point she cuts off the head of the angel and heads to Harlin.

"Harlin, you're going to--"

Glafli knew that instant that she was dead. Fuck.

She gets up.

"Nobody dies when you're around, huh?", says Glafli. She is quite astonished by this revalation. Wow. Revived. Really?

"That one was free, a result of my aspect. If either one of us dies down here, that's it for us."

"Fine. This is very clearly not a good place. We should clear it out."

"Oh... Yeah, I guess that if anyone can do it, it's you and me, huh?"

"You know it. Let's go."

Lyjaup's Attendants (as they'd has taken to calling the feathery humanoid monitors) seem docile. This is good, as they're absolutely gigantic. As they quickly learn, however, they aren't docile, simply... distracted. Glafli dispatches two of them as they find this out.

They go through the vault, killing more Attendants as they go. Six so far when Harlin loses a leg. Glafli immediately rips the axe out of the Messenger (as they'd taken to calling the wrinkly-skinned soldiers) and throws it at her. She blocks it with a shield, but Glafli takes the advantage to tear her throat in twain.

Harlin can't heal this one. She crawls along with Glafli into the next room. Glafli's head is torn off. She revives due to the conditional immortality. There stands a huge eyeless lyrebird with a spiral shell. She pecks at Harlin's head, leaving a ragged stump. Glafli, in a fit of rage, slashes repeatedly at the Jealous Catastrophe. The Catastrophe then bites Glafli in the head and it explodes into gore.

HEROIC.


Dwarf Fortress, everybody.

Fun facts: Glafli was 18 years old. Herido was 13. Harlin was 26. Anarli was over 1000 years old. Ustres was 65. Ustres and Anarli both had "violent disagreements".

"The Perfect League" was a human group that founded Cuddlescrub. Rumor has it that Glafli killed someone there. I'm fairly sure it isn't true.

The demon who Lyjaup helped enter was named Usbu. It was killed by a hill titan 91 years before this story.

Glafli helped bring Herido, Harlin, an ostrich, Seggja Dannra (Herido's killer), Anarli and Bottomflanks (Glafli/Harlin's killer) into history.

Ustres was actually a member of an insurrection against Glafli. It didn't pan out; Glafli killed every single member of the insurrection herself. So that's what.

The only things that Legends mode considers important from this CYOA are:

  Glafli kills Sabresteel the Scorching Mobs the Bronze Colossus
  Glafli takes over Masterbook
  Glafli quells an insurrection set up against her
  Glafli kills Oshot Tepidvoiced the Sovereign Slayer

Fascinatingly, there's an extra civilization at the end of the civilization list. It was Harlin. Like, literally. The only description for it is that "In the early spring of 125, Harlin Echoedscraped became an unknown civilization".

The Healing Ageless Planet seems to still exist despite the death of everyone in it.

The only reason Harlin didn't seem that badass was because she wasn't fast enough to compete with Glafli. Too bad.

[vjmdhzgr]

I suppose that really is just how Dwarf Fortress goes. It's why I suggested tearing the souls out of bandits for practice. While I'm a bit disappointed to see this end, I had more trouble understanding it then I did Homestuck the first time I read it. I didn't even know Glafli was a girl until page 6.

[Putnam]

Mostly because sex is irrelevant in DF, especially to trolls. Herido is the only troll in the entire story who wasn't bisexual (he only liked men). It's also why I mixed up Harlin and Herido's sexes early.

The confusion is probably mostly due to me being a bad writer, heh. At least, I think so? Nobody's complaining except you. I appreciate complaining, by the way. Also some to do with me not having all the info, anyway, thus why the Ustres thing confused me (what actually happened is that he joined in insurrection)

[Graknorke]

Dwarf Fortress wins again.
Well, it was a fun practical foray into how the new systems work.